Romancing The Snow
by Light-Eco-Sage
Summary: Just some fluffy goodness in the snow at Christmas time. JakxKeira. Post Jak X. Short summery, story is better.


**Romancing The Snow**

**Rated: PG-13 for pure fluffy goodness. (JakxKeira)**

**Summary: Just some fluffy goodness in the snow at Christmas time. Has nothing to do with 'Romancing The Stone'. Post Jak X.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Jak, any of the characters, of the settings. Everything is owned by the great Naughty Dog!**

**LES: Just consider this the out-cries of a girl who loves JakxKeira, and also lives in California, so is completely snow-deprived. I haven't seen snow in a long time. Seriously, the last time it snowed where I lived was when I was, like, seven years old, and that is the only time it has snowed where I live in my whole life. Some people, probably even you, are snowed in right now, where I'm lucky if it rains. Some of you probably have twenty snow days a year, when I've never had a snow day in my life!

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If you could believe it, it was actually a beautiful winter day in Haven City. Christmas was just around the corner and the whole City was suddenly in a festive mood. Everywhere people looked, green and red ribbons were festooned to the street Eco-lights, houses were decorated with lights and wreaths, and the City's giant Christmas tree had been lit in front of the Palace in a grand ceremony. Even mistletoe, that grand Christmas tradition, could be seen hung in the most unlikely of places, which was the source of much humor.

Jak had never felt so alive in Haven City before. But he supposed that was a given considering their recent brush with death during the Kras Racing Championships. Its funny how much more a person looks forward to the simple things, like celebrating a holiday, once you begin to think that you may never be able to celebrate a holiday again.

It seemed that every Christmas for the past few years, he had celebrated simply being alive, and in all likelihood, all future Christmas' would be like that too.

He was currently walking towards Keira's place, where he would pick her up so they could head to the Naughty Ottsel together to help the rodent decorate the place for Christmas.

He glanced around that the newly-fallen snow. Ha! Snow! Who would have thought that Haven would get snow, much less that it wouldn't be toxic with pollution? He pulled his coat tighter around himself, wishing that he had thought to come by zoomer. He was the only idiot who was trudging his way through the snow, feeling like the tips of his ears were going to freeze off any second with the next chance breeze.

He made it to Keira's house with little incident, and with only a few thoughts of hijacking some random civilian's zoomer. But he didn't. Keira always was able to tell when a zoomer was stolen, and highly disapproved of Jak's habit of 'borrowing' them.

He walked up to the door and knocked. It was instantly opened by Keira, smiling. She, too, was dressed for the weather with a scarf and a coat. "Jak." She said simply, pulling him into a little 'means nothing' hug. "Are we ready to go?"

"Sure." Jak said. "The sooner we get to the Ottsel, the better. At least the place has a heater."

Keira nodded in silent agreement and an awkward silence fell over them as she closed the door, locked it, and they began to walk off.

The silence, while awkward, was understandable. It had been only two weeks since that incident in the Bloody Hook bar in Kras City. After years of failed attempts and the only kisses they shared being the little nothing kisses on the cheek that friends share, they had finally shared a legitimate kiss.

Not that either of them had made a single mention of it since. Both had seemingly chosen to pretend that it had never happened at all.

Whenever someone, mainly Daxter, asked them if they had 'hooked up', they both would just blush and try to get out of the situation as quickly as possible.

And then, desperate to break the silence, Keira spoke the first thing on her mind, wrapping her arms around herself. "It's cold, huh?"

"Yeah." Jak agreed, absentmindedly putting his arm around her shoulder as if to shield her from the cold. But he just as quickly blushed and removed it.

"Come on, Jak, don't be a square!" Keira moaned.

Jak was in a shock, because that statement almost counted as a breaking of their unspoken truce. "Keira, I…!" He began to stutter.

Keira glared at the elf playfully. "Oh, Jak, you're no fun!" She grumbled, beginning to walk slower and trail behind.

Only when she was fully behind him did Jak notice that she wasn't at his side anymore. "Keira, why are you…?" He began to ask as he turned around, but the question was cut off when he was hit full in the face with a snowball. Shocked, the elf wheeled around, trying to get the cold snow out of his eyes. "Precursors!" He swore, turning back around to glare at Keira. The she-elf had her hands pressed to her mouth and he could clearly see the sign flashing big red letters in her mind: NOT AS PLANNED! She had obviously not planned on hitting him in the face, but still… "Keira! What was that for?" He demanded.

"Oh Jak! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to…" Keira gasped. "I was aiming at the back of your head, but you looked around at exactly the wrong time!"

"You did NOT just throw a snowball at me!" Jak half-yelled, bending down to scoop up some snow.

"Jak! Don't you dare!" Keira yelled at him.

"Oh, really, don't I dare?" Jak asked as he packed the snow into an icy missile. "Dare to defend myself when attacked? What kind of hero would I be if I didn't counter-attack?"

"Jak!" But it was too late. Jak had lobbed the snowball at her and it connected with her stomach. She gasped in shock at the cold.

"Stomach hit. I believe you are dead." Jak said playfully.

"Oh no! It would take more than that to defeat me! You just declared war, Mr. Hero!" Keira growled, making another snowball.

"Oh good, a war." Jak said, grinning as he made some snow ammunition. "This will be the third war I've won. I've gotten quite good at this war thing, you know."

What followed was a long snow-war that caused the people who were passing by to stare at them uncertainly. How many times in Haven were they treated to the sight of two fully grown elves throwing snowballs at each other? Let's just say that it was very rare.

Eventually, they were reduced to simply chasing each other through the snow. Keira eventually caught up with Jak and tackled him, sending them both rolling in the snow.

When they came to a stop, Jak had his upper-body draped across Keira's, but neither of them noticed because they were both laughing too hard.

"Man, it's been too long since we've simply had fun like this!" Keira said. "Jak, how come we don't do fun things anymore?"

"I think we're getting a little old to do things like snowball fights." Jak said, still laughing a little.

About five seconds later, they finally seemed to notice the position that they were in. They stared into each other's eyes, and Jak had a near-overwhelming urge to press his lips to hers. However, it was the powerful force of that particular urge that caused Jak to quickly get up out of the snow and offer her a hand.

The she-elf accepted it, a little disappointed. She could see the urge that he had as plain as day in his eyes, and had desperately wanted him to follow through. Why in the world were they still stuck in this rut between friends and lovers? Neither one seemed to have the courage to admit that they wanted to be 'more-than-friends', nor did they have the courage to break off any romantic notion and remain 'just friends.'

It was enough to drive the she-elf insane!

After several minutes of walking in silence, Keira suddenly spoke up again. "What do you want from me?"

Jak looked around. "What?" He asked, not quite getting what she was asking.

"What exactly is it that you want from me?" Keira demanded, a little more forcefully now. "One day, you'll seem all for starting the relationship that we've both always dreamed of, and the next day, you'll be all for staying friends! What exactly do you want from me?"

Jak stared at her a second, and then continued walking towards the Naughty Ottsel, staring at the ground. Finally, he spoke. "Keira, I… I really care about you, but I don't want to make a mistake."

"Who says that we would be a mistake?" Keira asked. Jak remained silent. "Maybe this will be easier for you if you knew what it was that I wanted from you."

"And what do you want from me?" Jak asked.

"I want for you to admit that you love me as much as I love you!" Keira said.

They both froze in their tracks at the same time. Never before had either of them mentioned the dreaded 'L' word out loud in relation to each other.

Just like the snowball, this conversation was not going as planned. She didn't mean to be quite so forward. Keira quickly spoke again, now going red with embarrassment. "Oh look! There's the Ottsel! We better hurry. Daxter's waiting for us." She hurried to the bar's front door, leaving Jak behind in his shock.

Jak finally managed to compose himself as Keira got under the eave. "Keira! Wait!" He called, rushing over to her. All thoughts of 'not-being-too-forward' evaporated in the young elf's mind as he pinned her against the wall. "Is that what you really want from me?" He asked.

Keira, who was a little shocked at just how forward Jak was being, stared into his eyes. "Maybe it is." She said, a little generically.

"Yes or no." Jak urged her to give him a straight answer. His face was really close to hers now, and she could feel his hot breath against her cold skin.

Then she noticed it: the mistletoe that hung in the doorway. Sure, they weren't DIRECTLY under it as tradition demanded, but she didn't really care. "Look, mistletoe." She said, pointing.

Jak looked around and saw the traditional berries hanging a good half-a-foot from their position. "Interesting." He said. "One of Daxter's lame attempts to get a girl to kiss him."

"Jak, its mistletoe!" Keira repeated incessantly.

"I know that its mistletoe!" Jak said, a little indignantly, like she was implying that he didn't know what it was.

"Well, you know the rules, don't you?" Keira asked, fluttering her eyelashes a little so that he got the message.

"Of course I… Oh!" Jak gasped, realizing what she was getting at. "Well… if I must…"

Without much further ado, he pressed his lips to hers, and was instantly reminded of how great this felt. In the past two weeks, he had forgotten. Keira pulled him in closer, so that now he had her completely pinned between the wall and his body. After almost a minute, they broke apart.

Keira spoke first, her eyes still closed in pleasure. "And, yes, Jak. I do love you. And I would want nothing more than to hear you say the same thing." She opened her large green eyes and watched the elf expectantly.

"Keira, I…" Jak trailed off, slightly embarrassed. He wasn't all that good with emotions, let alone telling a she-elf how he felt about her. "I… well… I love you, Keira."

Keira simply smiled at him, and then pulled him into another passionate kiss. And then… the Naughty Ottsel's door opened.

"Would you two quit sucking face and get in here to help me?" Daxter demanded. "Or else we're not going to get this place decorated until late July!" The two elves pulled apart and glared at the rodent. "Don't look at me like that! You two ain't even properly under the mistletoe! Did I go through the trouble of putting it up there for nothing?"

"Keep your fur on, Dax! We'll be right in!" Jak growled.

"Don't you two love birds take too long, now." Daxter said as he went back into the bar. The door closed just after Daxter yelled for the whole bar to hear: "THEY'RE KISSING!"

Both Jak and Keira groaned in embarrassment. "Well…" Jak began. "We should go in there before they REALLY start to gossip about us."

"Jak?" Keira asked suddenly.

"What?" Jak asked, looking down into her eyes.

She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "Merry Christmas." She said, smiling.

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**Fin!**

**LES: You can imagine how the people in the bar reacted to Daxter's announcement, because it was basically everyone they knew. LOL! Priceless facial expressions!**


End file.
